We start with by describing the basics of using Ciao from the Windows explorer and/or a DOS command shell. We strongly recommend reading also section An introduction to the Ciao emacs environment (Win32) for the basics on using Ciao under
emacs, which is a much simpler and much more powerful way of developing Ciao programs, and has the advantage of offering an almost identical environment under Windows and Un*x.

It is a good idea to start by performing some tests to check that Ciao is installed correctly on your system (these are the same tests that you are instructed to do during installation, so you can obviously skip them if you have done them already at that time):

Ciao-related file types (.pl source files, .cpx executables, .itf,.po,.asr interface files, .pls scripts, etc.) should have specific icons associated with them (you can look at the files in the folders in the Ciao distribution to check).

Double-clicking on the shortcut to
ciaosh(.cpx) on the desktop should start the typical Prolog top-level shell in a window. If this shortcut has not been created on the desktop, then double-clicking on the
ciaosh(.cpx) icon inside the shell folder within the Ciao source folder should have the same effect.

In the top-level shell, Prolog library modules should load correctly. Type for example use_module(library(dec10_io)). at the Ciao top-level prompt --you should get back a prompt with no errors reported.

To exit the top level shell, type halt. as usual, or ^D.

Also, the following documentation-related actions should work:

Double-clicking on the shortcut to ciao(.html) which appears on the desktop should show the Ciao manual in your default WWW browser. If this shortcut has not been created you can double-click on the ciao(.html) file in the doc\reference\ciao_html folder inside the Ciao source folder. Make sure you configure your browser to use
style sheets for correct formatting of the manual (note, however, that some older versions of
Explorer did not support style sheets well and will give better results turning them off).

The doc\reference folder contains the manual also in the other formats present in the distribution, such as info (very convenient for users of the
emacs editor/program development system) and postscript or pdf, which are specially useful for printing. See section Printing manuals (Win32) for instructions.

The basic methods for starting/exiting the top-level shell have been discussed above. The installation script also leaves a ciaosh(.bat) file inside the
shell folder of the Ciao distribution which can be used to start the top-level shell from the command line in Windows systems.

The basic methods for accessing the manual on-line have also been discussed above. Use the table of contents and the indices of predicates, libraries, concepts, etc. to find what you are looking for.
Context-sensitive help is available within the
emacs environment (see below).

Once the shell is started, you can compile and execute Prolog modules inside the interactive toplevel shell in the standard way. E.g., type use_module(file)., use_module(library(file)). for library modules, ensure_loaded(file). for files which are not modules, and use_package(file). for library packages (these are syntactic/semantic packages that extend the Ciao Prolog language in many different ways). Note that the use of
compile/1 and
consult/1 is discouraged in Ciao.

For example, you may want to type use_package(iso) to ensure Ciao has loaded all the ISO builtins (whether this is done by default or not depends on your
.ciaorc file). Do not worry about any "module already in executable" messages --these are normal and simply mean that a certain module is already pre-loaded in the toplevel shell. At this point, typing write(hello). should work.

Note that some predicates that may be built-ins in other Prologs are available through libraries in Ciao. This facilitates making small executables.

To change the working directory to, say, the examples directory in the Ciao source directory, first do:

?- use_module(library(system)).

(loading the
system library makes a number of system-related predicates such as
cd/1 accessible) and then:

?- cd('$/examples').

(in Ciao the sequence $/at the beginning of a path name is replaced by the path of the Ciao root directory).

Executables can be generated from the toplevel shell (using
make_exec/2) or using the standalone compiler (
ciaoc(.cpx), located in the ciaoc folder). To be able to make an executable, the file should define the predicate
main/1 (or
main/0), which will be called upon startup (see the corresponding manual section for details).

For example, within the
examples directory, you can type:

?- make_exec(hw,_).

which should produce an executable. Double-clicking on this executable should execute it.

Another way of creating Ciao executables from source files is by right-clicking on .pl files and choosing "make executable". This uses the standalone compiler (this has the disadvantage, however, that it is sometimes difficult to see the error messages).

Double-clicking on files ending in .pls, Ciao Prolog scripts, will also execute them. These are files containing Prolog source but which get executed without having to explicitly compile them (in the same way as, e.g., .bat files or programs in scripting languages). As an example, you can double-click on the file
hw.pls in the
examples folder and look at the source with an editor. You can try changing the Hello world message and double-clicking again (no need to recompile!).

As you can see, the file should define the predicate
main/1 (not
main/0), which will be called upon startup. The two header lines are only necessary in Un*x. In Windows you can leave them in or you can take them out, but leaving them in has the advantage that the script will also work in Un*x without any change.

The Ciao toplevel can be made to execute upon startup a number of commands (such as, e.g., loading certain files or setting certain Prolog flags) contained in an initialization file. This file should be called
.ciaorc and placed in your home folder (e.g., the same in which the
.emacs file is put). You may need to set the environment variable HOME to the path of this folder for the Ciao toplevel shell to be able to locate this file on startup.

As mentioned before, the manual is available in several formats in the reference folder within Ciao's doc folder, including postscript or pdf, which are specially useful for printing. This can be done using an application such as
ghostview (freely available from http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/index.html) or
acrobat reader (http://www.adobe.com, only pdf).

While it is easy to use Ciao with any editor of your choice, using it within the
emacs editor/program development system is highly recommended: Ciao includes an
emacsmode which provides a very complete
application development environment which greatly simplifies many program development tasks. See section Using Ciao inside GNU emacs for details on the capabilities of
ciao/
emacs combination.

If the (freely available)
emacs editor/environment is not installed in your system, we highly recommend that you also install it at this point (there are instructions for where to find
emacs and how to install it in the Ciao installation instructions). After having done this you can try for example the following things:

A few basic things:

Typing ^Hi (or in the menus Help->Manuals->Browse Manuals with Info) should open a list of manuals in info format in which the Ciao manual(s) should appear.

When opening a Prolog file, i.e., a file with .pl or .pls ending, using ^X^Ffilename (or using the menus) the code should appear highlighted according to syntax (e.g., comments in red), and Ciao/Prolog menus should appear in the menu bar on top of the
emacs window.

Loading the file using the Ciao/Prolog menu (or typing ^Cl) should start in another emacs buffer the Ciao toplevel shell and load the file. You should now be able to switch the the toplevel shell and make queries from within
emacs.

Note: when using
emacs it is very convenient to swap the locations of the (normally not very useful) Caps Lock key and the (very useful in
emacs) Ctrl key on the keyboard. How to do this is explained in the
emacs frequently asked questions FAQs (see the
emacs download instructions for their location).
(if these things do not work the system or emacs may not be installed properly).

You can go to the location of most of the errors that may be reported during compilation by typing ^C`.

You can also, e.g., create executables from the Ciao/Prolog menu, as well as compile individual files, or generate active modules.

Loading a file for source-level debugging using the Ciao/Prolog menu (or typing ^Cd) and then issuing a query should start the source-level debugger and move a marker on the code in a window while execution is stepped through in the window running the Ciao top level.

You can add the lines needed in Un*x for turning any file defining
main/1 into a script from the Ciao/Prolog menu or by typing ^CIS.

You can also work with the preprocessor and auto-documenter directly from emacs: see their manuals or browse through the corresponding menus that appear when editing .pl files.

You may want to read section Beyond installation for instructions on how to sign up on the Ciao user's mailing list, receive announcements regarding new versions, download new versions, report bugs, etc.